Johnny Depp to Star as Troubled Technology Virus Magnate John McAfee

Johnny Depp has signed on to star in the upcoming movie about technology magnate John McAfeeKing Of The Jungle.

The actor will take a lead role in the upcoming movie, which is a based around a Wired magazine story about technology magnate John McAfee, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Written by Joshua Davis in 2012, the article titled John McAfee’s Last Stand chronicled the life of McAfee, who cashed in his fortune from making the McAfee Antivirus software, before moving to the jungle in Belize, where he set-up a “Colonel Kurtz-like compound of guns, sex and madness”.

It is understood that the film will follow the story of Davis, and his assignment to interview McAfee, as well as how he was pulled into the mogul’s “escalating paranoia, slippery reality” while visiting the Central American country.

During his time in Belize, it has been reported that McAfee’s property in Orange Walk Town was raided by local police in 2012, where he was arrested for unlicensed drug manufacturing and possession of an unlicensed weapon, though he was apparently later released without charge.

He was also investigated as a “person of interest” in connection to the murder of American expatriate Gregory Viant Faull in 2012, but evaded the Belizean authorities when he was sought for questioning concerning the death, and was eventually released from detention in Guatemala and deported to the United States. Belizean police have not persisted in seeking McAfee over the alleged crime.

The movie is based on a script from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and will be directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. It will be produced by Conde Nast Entertainment, Zaftig Films,MadRiver Pictures and Epic Entertainment.

After hitting the headlines in 2016 for issues in his personal life, including his divorce from actress Amber Heard, Depp is now focusing once again on making movies.

The 53-year-old will next be seen onscreen in Disney’sPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, as well as Fox’sMurder on the Orient Express and Warner Bros.’Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2.